Scientology in Germany

Though there are 3 “ideal orgs” in Germany — Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart and 6 “regular” orgs — Dusseldorf, CC Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hannover, Munich and CC Munich (3 of these really exist on paper only) — things remain moribund for scientology in the largest nation in Europe.

No new orgs in Germany since the 1980’s. None in the former East Germany ever.

And some updated news as the Office for the Protection of the Constitution issued its latest annual report last week:

Again in 2018, the Scientology Organization did not come closer to achieving its objective of establishing a “scientologist society” in Germany. Membership in Germany dropped slightly during the reporting year to about 3,400 persons, and the number of high-profile public activities remained low.

The Scientology Organization continues to be guided by the writings of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, which make clear that a society based on Scientology teachings would not guarantee essential fundamental and human rights.

Membership dropped? With 3 ideal orgs? This must be some psych propaganda….

And 3,400 people for 9 orgs. That’s 400 people per org which is possibly a high estimate (though sure to be more accurate than any figures scientology provides). But in a country of 83 million that is a miniscule percentage of the population. Less than half of one hundredth of 1%. About 1 in every 30,000 people. Scientology is NOT “Clearing Germany”.

Things are not looking good in Deutschland. The only explanation is that it is definitely the psychs. After all, Germany is the stronghold of psychiatry according to scientology.

So where is CCHR? They claimed psychiatry would be eliminated by the year 2000. And every year they have had greater gains and accomplishments than ever before thanks to the IAS? I guess CCHR is also being suppressed by the psychs?

Translation: “It is noteworthy that the opening of the Ideal Org in Stuttgart is not the result of an increase in the SO membership potential in this state, but even took place against the background of continuously falling membership numbers.” (https://www.verfassungsschutz.de/embed/vsbericht-2018.pdf, Constitutional Protection Report 2018, Germany)

And the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony reported for 2018, that in recent years, Scientology had attempted to recruit within the sports. And that it didn’t work out: “Ihrem Ziel der Errichtung einer scientologischen Gesellschaft, wird SO in Sachsen-Anhalt nicht näher kommen. Ihr gelingt es nach wie vor nicht, Mitglieder zu gewinnen und Strukturen aufzubauen.”

I happened to be at Flog at a time when things were not going well with the German government and the German OTs were being recalled to Flog for heavy ethics handlings. The viewpoint was that if things weren’t going well these guys were to blame for not disseminating enough etc. No admission that the horrible PR emanated from Miscavige etc, and made it almost impossible to disseminate. I would imagine that a number of OTs jumped ship after that.

It also doesn’t help that Scientology operates like an intelligence agency serving a hostile power that has designs on taking over, based on explicit doctrines including that the final solution for large numbers of certain types of people is to “dispose of them quietly and without sorrow.”

I know from talking to high-level old timers that even after the GO scandal, Scientology was still trying to infiltrate the German government in the 1980s.

Many Germans are very careful about the whole “follow the leader” situation. Remember the “I was just following orders” excuses used by many during the trials- I think that the blind obedience demanded by Scientology would rub many wrong- especially if they were living in Germany or had relatives who lived through that time. It’s not as easy to talk people into not asking questions about murky directives as it is in the US and other countries. The old “once bitten” rule could deter a lot of Germans from staying with the cult. Just a suggestion.

Florence,
I think a lot of European countries have more ingrained skepticism than Americans. Not sure why, but I’ve got friends from all over Europe and most are a bit cynical- not overly so or to the point of unpleasantness, but less willing to take someone’s word on information. In the US, you can convince a large number of people to believe many things that would be difficult to do in most European countries (large scale).

Sooner or later the fines for violations of the EU GDPR related to Central Files, PC Files, and Ethics Files, will start being levied. I wonder what it will do to the membership numbers when the fund raising to pay them off starts?

Yes, thats the point. The company violates GDPR (Gsdvo) in almost any points. Their lawyers will say it is under US protection and “religious”, but in europe it is not recognized as this. It is a common knowing, that this is trick by the gang to undergo taxes. Comparable as if the sicily mafia will get a cert to be a religion.

So, the governmets have an important tool to stop the hidden blackmailing of their public.

What’s going to really kill them is $cientology falls into the group of organizations that are required to have an independent ‘auditor’ verifying they are in compliance with the GDPR. It can’t be done internally, or by anyone having any connection with the organization. If they don’t have one that is verifiably independent, one gets appointed for them. And if $cientology gets hard nosed about admitting the independent auditor, the police of the country involved can be called to insure admittance. It will be interesting to see on Miscavige responds when $cientology gets called onto the GDPR ‘carpet’.

I work in the data field and have been working with High Tech journalists on this subject for about 1 1/2 years. GDPR will be easy to comply with if the CoS wishes to do so. Having everything on paper makes it easier in one major way.

I’ll never be able to parallel the mind of david miscavige (thank God). I can kind of see his warped “reasoning” behind opening Ideal Orgs. I think it’s to be able to raise a shit ton of money for nothing, (In other words, he doesn’t have to provide any training or auditing for anyone.) and buy and renovate a HUGE building. Empty or otherwise, it’s an asset that satisfies some 501c3 requirement about not hoarding money. Heh! Let’s face it, it’s a pretty ingenious way of pulling the wool over the eyes of the IRS, your own members and some people out here in the real world (“Oh Look! That church of scientology must be doing really well! Those are beautiful and expensive buildings!”)

But why in the hell does dave want to open THREE of them in Germany, a country that clearly has his number and can’t stand the Church of Scientology and the numbers REALLY REALLY SUCK in Germany.

Its my personal opinion that Miscavige’s Ideal M’Org scam works not because he’s clever but because the Still Ins are remarkably stupid. See, they started out PRETENDING to not know what they knew, PRETENDING to not see what they saw, and for their own reasons persisted in the pretense of not knowing and not seeing to the point where their lives became so complex, i.e., they’ve lied to themselves and each other SO much that now they really DON’T see anymore, CAN’T observe anymore, really ARE stupid now. Miscavige could never have succeeded without the express help and cooperation of the Still Ins. That’s what happens when you pretend to be stupid: keep doing it, year in and year out, and it comes true. My 2.

The 400 per org seems high – my guess would be that’s counting IAS memberships, many of the holders of which bought lifetime memberships long ago and then went inactive or even became disaffected, not to mention all the UTRs and whatnot. I see no signs, like local org event (or staff) pictures, indicating that the German orgs have more than what seems to be the typical US active membership of around 50 per org. That’s actually sort of buttressed by the photos from the recent “ideal” opening in Stuttgart, which presumably involved a call far and wide for people to show up, but apparently was attended by just a couple of hundred people total, even though it’s just a few hours’ travel from almost anywhere in Germany.

Just as an aside XS, I happened upon a meeting of a Flag Salesperson in a continental area. For those who may not know, Flag has sales staff looking after each major area, based in that area. They are called Flag Service Consultants, or FCSs. The one I ‘overheard’ was describing the one FSC who looked after Anzo and Africa, versus the 12 that serviced Taiwan.

RoutedOut – That was the one country I was going to ask about in response to XS’s question. Mike and Tony have both talked of the baffling success they’ve had there, but also Italy, interestingly. I don’t know if Italy is truly that active in recruitment vs Taiwan, but they’re definitely moreso then other European countries!

I don’t think that number was culled by co$ just because Germany is smart enough to trust NOTHING they say or do. I don’t know if it came from a formal census or if that gov’t organization or non-profit mentioned above does a survey or other means of keeping updated track. But I totally agree that seems high for Germany of all places. Curious…

In 2014 the internal number by their president was 2450 scientogists. Not more.
Now it is about 1100 to 1300 fanatics who will stay until the russians conquer berlin – after this they disappear and get whitewashed . Maybe plus 700 sleepers, youngsters and kids.

The worse thing: 3000 blown ones wait until a new buddha/lucifer (this is what Hubbard always wanted to be) comes to refresh the egoblasting superpowers which they still expecting to get from systems.

About 20 years ago, a leak happened, and this stated 7500 fanatics incl. Kids and deadfiled members. That means at the peak were about 4500 to 5000 ones in the german area.

Scn and multilevelmarketing systems are demanding lies, so every number is far beyond truth. The members are eager to become more and more, so they go with the systems which help then on this eagerness.

That would come to about 130 members per org, which seems plausible. From what I can tell, orgs in the US seem to have an average of around 50 to 60 active members, but then about as many more in their “field” who may show up a couple of times a year for special events, making a total of between 100 and 150 who are still connected to the org in some way that counts – and quite a few of those are UTRs, nonetheless.

Thanks for the information. I still suspect that the German authorities are counting IAS memberships, a number that is higher yet since many who ceased being involved years ago still hold lifetime memberships they paid for.

Skyler,
Its interesting to speculate on DM’s current mental state.
I’d say he’s in bunker mode, both mentally and, for the most part, physicaly.
He, along with a few select upper echelon OSA people, maybe a trusted SO servant or two, and his attorneys, who of course are hand in glove with him as re all scams being perpetrated, are holed up together, certainly mentally and frequently physically, marking time until “Final Days”.
I’d say his true program is just playing out the scams that still bring him money, trumpeting “unprecedented expansion” as the PR line for as long as the Still Ins appear to believe it, while in fact marking time in preparation for the day when he knows he’ll HAVE TO leave. When or if that day comes during his lifetime remains to be seen, but I think for at least a decade he’s been fully prepared for it. In fact, I’d venture to opine that his Ideal M’Org Pogram (not a typo) was cooked up as an exit strategy for him, a way to spin out the years and milk whatever he can milk out of the cult before he has to leave – again, if that day ever comes “this lifetime”. Sometimes I wonder if he really believes, as Scientologists do, that we live again and again.

You have a very nice take on his mental state. I think there is an excellent chance you are spot on the money.

The interesting thing to me is that if you are spot on, it would mean he is nowhere near as clever as I had been giving him credit for.

If he was a highly intelligent person, surely he would realize there is not real difference between 1.5 billion and 1.6 billion or even 3 billion.

However …. the penalties he will have to suffer (meaning penitentiary time) will surely be handed down to him on an exponential curve. In other words, for every extra day he spends padding his already stuffed bank accounts, surely it doesn’t take a whole lot of smarts to know those last few days of stuffing will cost him so much penitentiary time that wasting his time stuffing an extra few million will cause him to spend the rest of his life in the pen.

But maybe it’s not because he is stupid. Maybe he is just so stymied with greed that he no longer can control himself? Either way, he still belongs in the pen.

About a year ago, I received an e-mail from a follower of Rudolph Steiner, the famous German Occultist who died in 1925. This person was following Anthroposophy which is the religion that Steiner founded.
Steiner postulated that spiritual reality could be reached. This person asked a few questions about Scientology which I answered for him. There is no information about the number of Anthroposophy followers in Germany but I bet they exceed Scientologists.

I’m sure they do. I’ve actually met a couple Anthroposophists in the U.S. They were kooks, but gentle kooks. I have yet to meet a Scientologist irl, or at least someone who will admit to being a Scientologist, and I live pretty close to Clearwater. I’ve met, and am neighbors with, people of all sorts of religions (and no religion, like myself), but nary a Scientologist to be found. The closest I’ve been was when I saw some lonely, bored young woman with a stand of Dianetics books at the mall a few years ago.

You have probably met quite a few scientologists, you just didn’t know it. Many of the ones I met and knew would deny their involvement or connection to $cio whole heartedly to anyone who wasn’t also a Scientologist – except for 1, her name was Sari Halevy. Which to me always begged the question: why do they deny it and hide it if there’s nothing about it to be ashamed of…hmm?

All the ones I met and knew worked for a company called Teami Blends (maybe you’ve heard of them, they’re local?) where they actively pushed (and eventually changed to mandatory after people said they didn’twant to take them) “business courses” offered by WISE in the workplace all containing Scientology terminology and denied it through and through despite me calling it out; which begs another question- why deny their connection if there is nothing bad or shady about it? I was threatened by Sari, the one Scientologist who didn’t deny her connection and the course instructor at Teami, who said if I told anyone about the courses being Scientology based that I wouldn’t make it very far in the company and that I might be “out” – as in fired and out ethics which they thought I, and all the other young impressionable brain washable girls they hire there, wouldn’t be smart enough to know or too naive to do their own research. Unfortunately for them I knew too much and spoke up about my discomfort and their connection to Scio often – ultimately I was fired for speaking up – but they said the reason I was fired was “A company decision” and that they weren’t permitted to discuss it, and even tried to get me to sign a nondisclosure absolving them of any legal wrong doing or mistreatment; of course I didn’t sign. I would honestly LOVE to speak up more and expose them for all the shady things they did there behind the scenes, but worry they’d come after me.
I tried to talk to a lawyer and they said I didn’t have grounds for a lawsuit, despite various forms of mistreatment and discrimination during my employment. I wonder if they really thought that, or if the moment I said they were Scientologists they immediately decided they weren’t going to try to fight it and Im sure their massive team of lawyers ~ including the ones at WISE who write their “I will take this course” documentation.

Anyways 😂 sorry for rambling. It just makes me so angry and disgusted what all they get away with and the “clever” ways they cover up the truth of what they’re doing – which I believe is taking the “success stories” from their course completions at Teami Blends to boost their IAS “course completions” stats to spout to the people still in the bubble to keep them still ins; of course, just a theory, but so much going on at that company doesn’t add up and seems shady/suspicious.

Annnnd again – I rambled 😂 just call me the ramblin’ not-a-scientologist fan.

R2Hydro…
I am not a lawyer, BUT…based on the information in your post, it sounds like that company knowingly broke the law and violated your rights. An aggressive, well-informed( about scientology ” fair game ” tactics and their vexatious litigation ) lawyer could probably win a civil lawsuit against them.

If I could afford a lawyer of that inform and likely pay grade I absolutely would. Unfortunately, I can’t justify fighting a fight I don’t even know for sure I’ll win with funds I don’t have right now – which is sad because I know what they were doing was wrong and on more than 1 occasion.

I live near a university, and nearly everyone I know is connected with the university in some way. Pretty much everyone who isn’t, is either in medicine (including psychiatry) or farming. So I don’t think I’ve met any Scientologists, actually. I have met people from Clearwater, a couple of whom I became close enough to to talk Scientology with, and they *hate* it. Very calm, mellow people usually, so it’s interesting to watch them utterly overcome with cold rage.

I’ve never heard of Teami Blends, but that’s the kind of thing I avoid like the plague. Looks like Publix doesn’t even carry it, thank goodness.

Teami Blends is an E-commerce company, but they do have some of their products in shops; they’re mostly in “boutiques” because they try to sell their items as upscale. Their skincare items are at Ulta across Tampa Bay now. I’m glad that they’re not in Publix, but I know they’re gonna try to get into places like Nordstrom Rack and Target after getting into Vitamin Shoppe or something like that.

I can’t readily find anything there about how many members (Mitglieder) they currently have, but this site says that in 2014 they reported that German membership lists (Mitgliederlisten) amounted to 13,732:

Source: A Wikipedia writeup on Scientology in Germany.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_in_Germany
“The Church of Scientology has operated in Germany since 1970. German authorities estimate that there are 4,000 active Scientologists in Germany as of 2012;[1] the Church of Scientology gives a membership figure of around 12,000”

Xenu’s Son. At the paper I used to work for one of the numbers we had to use when saying how many people viewed our publication was they had us use 2.3 people per subscriber household. With the numbers used per Wikipedia, DM just rounded up to 3 per household. Not sure what mathamagic he uses but that could account for the 4,000 being 12,000. It’s magic!

Several aspects are interesting methinks. The membership figure given by the german government is 3,400, by Scientology 12,000. They cannot fuddle the numbers as much as they wanted as they are closely watched. Still they never cease to try. The official number is on the high side, Scientology cannot recruit in Germany. Their public image is as bad as elsewhere, maybe even worse, as they had public exposure by critics books in the 1990s and a popular TV movie “Bis nichts mehr bleibt” – “until nothing remains”. Becoming a scientologist is as popular as getting measles. According to a newspaper report the COS lost 30% of its members since 1997. Oh and for fun the same newspaper cited the government agency about the Stuttgart ideal org as “reichlich überdimensioniert” “very much oversized” for the amount of members that are supposed to populate it.

He certainly deserves a similar fate. But because so little is really known about him, I find it very difficult to predict how he will end.

I would very much like to see him forced to take a witness stand and be forced to answer questions. Unfortunately, he has a great many more options than Da Fuhrer did.

Is he so crazy that he has identified himself with this scam such that when it dies, he will feel unable to carry on and take his own life? I don’t know and find that very difficult to predict.

In yesterday’s blog, Balletlady said the following, “Not a doubt in my mind that David M has LOYALIST ALL OVER THE WORLD & that if HE needs to be hidden away…he has COS loyalist that would definitely do his bidding even at the cost of having themselves locked up in prison.”

This seems highly accurate to me. So it may come down to how delusional he will be at the end. Will he believe that he just cannot go on living once all the evildoers in this world destroy his scam? Or, like Balletlady pointed out, will he choose someone he believes will provide him a safe haven and then go into hiding until he beats that person so much they decide he can just go to Hell and they may then try to send him there.

I wish I had some way of knowing. But in the meantime, I think it is a very interesting question for people to try and predict. My biggest hope is that unlike all the Nazi criminals from WW2, I fervently hope he is not allowed to wriggle his way out of landing in the pen – which is where he richly deserves to go.

Ron will put out a tractor beam and pull Dave up to Target Two where he will be assimilated in the overcrowded cluster population and the whole gang will go off to the next goal post in the sky. Excelsior!

Wow! I started to read that transcript and I had no idea that lawyers would act like babies in these deposition proceedings.

They seemed to spend an hour arguing back and forth whether the papers that he was served with were the same papers that he referred to on the previous day.

It’s as if they want to extend the length of time they spend in these hearings to as much as possible and they can spend hours and hours arguing about the most minute and stupid details – like whether someone is standing or sitting.

If one lawyer asks a question like, “Would you stand for that?”, the lawyers would then spend hours debating the difference between sitting and standing.

That was a real eye opener. Lawyers must be able to make a fortune by wasting all the time in the world until someone runs out of money.

Most lawyers would not stand for that. I have attended dozens of depositions and they are not usually a few 3-year olds throwing temper tantrums. Most people being deposed make a valiant effort to be honest and just answer the questions they are asked.

Most clients also do not have bottomless pockets. The corporate client has to save his boss money and the attorney representing a client on a contingent fee basis has no desire to waste his time in depositions because he’s not getting an hourly fee to be there. He only gets paid if he wins. He can run up costs of mailing, copying, which he may reimbursed for based on the agreement, but his time is a simple you lose you get nada.

It’s only when someone is paying their attorney to be sure they don’t testify like Miscavige does that you get that horrible circus. Even then, he made a laughingstock of himself because the transcripts became public, so now he pays his attorneys to be sure he doesn’t get deposed again.

If you haven’t yet seen it, here he is making an add of himself in his only Nightline appearance.

I’ve often thought that when you are being deposed or you are on the witness stand, the only really safe way to answer those questions is with another question. Answering a question with a question is bound to really piss off the lawyer who is asking you questions. But it seems like a good strategy to keep yourself out of trouble.

I wonder if that is what he does. But I couldn’t read any further past the first few pages.

I got to the point where the defense council was complaining that they’d taken up 3 hours to get to that point, with nothing actually answered. Judging from the number of MUs Davey said he had, he came off as an ignoramus, but was more likely playing plenty crafty to avoid saying ANYthing of substance. BTW:: did he actually ID who he was at any time? I missed it if it was in the transcript.

David Miscavige is a billionaire who can buy himself whatever he needs, not the least of which is the the best minds for sale, in order to live out his days in total physical comfort and safety. Note that I said “physical” comfort and safety. I think must be pretty far gone on mentally by now and if, or when he ever has to step down I think his mental deterioration will accelerate to the point where he’ll need a minder with him 24/7.

Personally, I do believe we live again and again. I always kind of did, even before I got into Scientology. Everything comes back, everything gets reborn; the flowers, the leaves, etc., so why not us? And I don’t have any proof and I really don’t know; I have no clue, really 🙂 Anyway, I’m only mentioning this to point out that IF David Miscavige believes in past lives, believes that we are in essence immortal beings, believes that we live again and again in different bodies, then, given the pain he has caused others this lifetime, what a horror show of a future he is creating for himself. and wow wow wow, how it is REALLY going to suck to be him in his future lives. No amount of money could be worth what its going to take for him to confront what he’s going to have to do to clean himself up. And don’t forget: “You can’t take it with you”. On the other hand, let’s say there’s only one lifetime, and this is it. Ok, it STILL sucks to be him, with all his money.

Think about it; with all his money, he leads a very narrow little life.

Where does he go? Does he travel, see any of the glorious sights and wonders of this beautiful planet?

As a fabulously rich man, how does he spend his time, pass his days. What does he actually DO?

Eat, sleep, work out, get massaged, get chiro treatments, practice his Int Event speeches, confer with his lawyers about legal cases, drink; once a year he goes on a snorkeling vacation to the Freewinds. If and only if an Ideal M’Org is ready he’ll travel to a foreign country.

Yes, Aqua, he is trapped in a blood-money bubble.
No joy, no love, no honest work…and if he does,
in some form or fashion, in this life or another, reap
what he has sown, you are right, it will probably be
commensurately fucked up…

Important Quotes

If the org slumps during this transition period, don't engage in "fund raising"
or "selling postcards" or borrowing money. Just make more income with Scientology.
L Ron Hubbard From HCOPL URGENT ORG PROGRAMMING

"We own a tremendous amount of property. We own a tremendous amount of material and so forth, and it keeps growing.
But that’s not important. When buildings get important to us, for God sakes, some of you born revolutionists will you please blow up central headquarters".
L Ron Hubbard Lecture 31 Dec 1960

"Personal integrity is knowing what you know. What you know is what you know and to have the courage to know and say what you have observed".- LRH from Personal Integrity

"It is necessary to happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists of professing to believe what he does not believe." Thomas Paine

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” - Martin Luther King

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” - Martin Luther King

“There comes a time when silence is betrayal.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

“Communication is the universal solvent” - L Ron Hubbard

“When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.” Thomas Paine

"Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth." William Faulkner

"The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual's own reason and critical analysis." Dalai Lama